Jeff Poor

Hosni Mubarak’s vague address to the Egyptian people on Thursday has led to uncertainty in the country that has some prognosticating the worst.

On Thursday’s Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Charles Krauthammer accused the Egyptian president of being delusional, and said his response will lead to “an explosion.”

“That was a shocking speech and what is shocking about it is they had raised the expectation of the crowd in the square,” Krauthammer said. “There was an announcement by the military earlier that their demands would be met, as we saw all of the dancing, and all of a sudden you get a speech where the president of Egypt is clueless, delusional, speaking in paternalistic tones the way he did two weeks ago, as if nothing has happen[ed] — speaking to the demonstrators as his children. They see him as their tyrant. It seems to me that they are at a point where they are going to have an explosion.”

Krauthammer laid out three scenarios contingent on whether the military turns on the people, breaks up and does nothing or, the best of the scenarios, institutes a “soft coup.”

“When the mosques empty tomorrow, there’s going to be a mass of people that will be extremely angry and here I think we’re at the tipping point,” Krauthammer said. “The question is — what will the army do? It’s always been the central issue — what will the army do. Either it’s thrown in its lot with Mubarak, in which case I think it’s looking at a catastrophe because it will have to shoot on the crowd and lose all the stature it has, or it won’t shoot and it disintegrates and we’re in chaos. Or I think, the one possible outcome that might be a beneficent one would be a coup of some sort — a soft coup in which Mubarak and those around him are pushed out in dignity, they’re not shot, and the military takes over, has a provisional government, appoint technocrats and has a transition to elections and democracy.”

Watch:

Mixed signals have been sent as to whether or not Mubarak or Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman is in charge.

“Clearly that is a spin that the Mubarak administration is putting on right now,” Krauthammer said. “If that was so and that was intended as the message, it should have been at the top of the speech, spelled out openly and clearly. It was at the end of the speech, in the middle of ramblings about being buried in Egypt, and it wasn’t clear that some of the powers or all of the powers. And to say that he is no longer the president, only de jure and not de facto, seems to be a patch on to something that was a disaster that the Egyptian administration is trying to undo. I’m not sure it will convince anyone. He is still in power. Unless he goes, there is going to be violence.”

If the Egyptians in the streets are using information gained from US News(sic) organizations they are as deluded as we are. I stopped watching many days ago because all I saw was a bunch of ‘talking heads’ trying get air time showing them standing in the midst of the crowd yelling towards the cameras.

Why is the crowd surrounding the camera, and looking at it, always much louder and more active than those you can see in the background????

morristhewise

Egypt cannot be free unless Mubarak and his unchecked police forces are gone. Out of the chaos a government that better reflects the will of it`s people would arise. The new Egypt will not please some outsiders, but that is the price of being free.

mdiavaro99ro

So it was Mubarak who gave the speech after all… pretty lame… I think I (over)heard him talk of himself in the third person which made me wonder whether it was him or his clone Suleiman. LOL

Noir

I generaly have respect for Mr. Krauthammer but I don`t understand how he finds Mubarak`s speech shocking, or Murbarak himself “clueless, delusioinal and speaking in paternalistic tones”. This is typical of most dictators – Castro, Chavez. They do what they want and not what “the people” want…..hey sort of like Obama when it comes to the imposition of forcing Americans to buy his idea of a health plan.

Dr. Krauthammer, please talk about the “post-constitutional” state our own government is in! This administration must follow the opinion of the judge in FLA that ruled Obamacare unconstitutional.

http://apollospaeks.townhall.com apollospeaks

EGYPT AND THE 32ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION

Tomorrow February 11th on the 32nd anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, when most of the Iranian military broke ranks with the old pro-Western secular regime and joined with the Islamo-Nazi Khomenie thugs, the Egyptian military will decide the fate of Egypt. Will it support the old pro-Western secular regime and wreck havoc on the revolutionaries if thyey turn violent? Or wlll it side with the mostly anti-American, anti-Israel, pro-Sharia mob who want to tear down the walls between mosque and state and Islamize their country? Tomorrow will tell.

Click my name for more articles on the Egyptian Crisis at my top Townhall blog.

Steve53

Dr. Krauthammer was and is an unregenerate apologist for George W. Bush (a man I voted for; sadly) and he is an apologist for Islam. I have little respect for Krauthammer.

HardRightTurn

The Egyptian revolution would more likely as not be resolved by now if Obama had stayed out of it. His pile disturbing bungling will get the blame laid at his feet for any violence of the sort Krauthammer is predicting.

jjsmithers

Unfortunately, the media will not be laying any blame for anything at the feet of “The One”. They will spin that (like the economy) it would have been much worse if not for Obama.